Welcome our 2014 Online Conference Curators

One of the great joys of my 2013 at TCG was working with Jacqueline E. Lawton and Caridad Svich on the Diversity & Inclusion and Artistic Innovation blog salons, respectively. To say they went above and beyond the call would be an ungainly understatement, as attested to by the 100+ wide-ranging, provocative, thoughtful and heart felt essays and interviews they curated. Those relationships have continued, with Jacqueline leading a renewed Diversity & Inclusion series and Caridad sharing the interviews from the 30/30 US Latin@/NoPassport reading scheme.

So it is with great pleasure that we welcome back Jacqueline E. Lawton and Caridad Svich as online curators of the 2014 TCG National Conference: Crossing Borders. They return to lead salons on our four new programmatic arcs: {Art | People} {Survive | Thrive} {Theatre | Technology} and {Conflict | Confluence}. Then, at the Conference, they’ll be your eyes and ears on the ground, sharing their thoughts on breakout sessions, plenaries and more.

Jacqueline will be leading the {Conflict | Confluence} and {Theatre | Technology} salons, and Caridad, the {Art | People} and {Survive | Thrive}. These arcs each explore a particular border, exemplified by these four questions:

How are relationships changing between theatres and communities?

How can we move our financial practices from surviving to thriving?

How can the live arts better engage with our digital culture?

How can we have productive conversations about difference?

If you want to participate in these salons–and everyone is invited to participate–please email me and I’ll send you more information. I can’t wait to see where this next salons take us!

Jacqueline E. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener fellow. Her plays include Anna K; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; The Devil’s Sweet Water; The Hampton Years; Ira Aldridge: Love Brothers Serenade, Mad Breed and Our Man Beverly Snow. She has received commissions from Active Cultures Theater, Discovery Theater, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of American History, Round House Theatre and Theater J. A 2012 TCG Young Leaders of Color, she has been nominated for the Wendy Wasserstein Prize and a PONY Fellowship from the Lark New Play Development Center. She resides in Washington DC and is a member of Arena Stage’s Playwrights’ Arena. jacquelinelawton.com

Caridad Svich received a 2012 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theatre, a 2012 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award for GUAPA, and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on the Isabel Allende novel. She has edited several books on theatre including Out of Silence (Eyecorner Press), Trans-Global Readings and Theatre in Crisis? (both for Manchester University Press) Divine Fire (BackStage Books), Out of the Fringe (TCG), and Conducting a Life: Reflections on the Theatre of Maria Irene Fornes (Smith & Kraus). caridadsvich.com

August Schulenburg is the Associate Director of Communications at TCG. He is also a creative partner of Flux Theatre Ensemble, winner of the 2011 Caffe Cino Fellowship Award. He is a playwright whose produced plays include Riding the Bull, DEINDE, Carrin Beginning, The Lesser Seductions of History, Dream Walker, Honey Fist, Rue, Jacob’s House and Other Bodies. He is also a director (most recently Ellen McLaughlin’s Ajax in Iraq and Sol Crespo’s Old Maid) and actor (the recent film, The Golden Scallop and the play Hearts Like Fists). He serves on the board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters. Learn more here.